


Unravelling the Red Tape

by shopfront



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Alcohol Induced Amnesia, Getting Together, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Woke Up Married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-07-24 00:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20017273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: Nick's first question when he wakes up with a pounding headache is which Wesen got the drop on him this time. The second is when the hell did he get married?





	Unravelling the Red Tape

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flawsinthevoodoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flawsinthevoodoo/gifts).



Awareness began to filter in slowly. The first thing that Nick wondered when he realised sunlight was searing his eyelids, unfiltered by his usual bedroom curtains, was what sort of Wesen had gotten the drop on him now? The second thing was where the hell they’d stashed him, because that definitely wasn’t a forest floor underneath him. Instead, he seemed to be tucked fully clothed into a very comfortable bed. Even his shoes were still on.

Nick finished waking in a rush after that. He made the mistake of sitting up in a rush, too, only to groan and grab at his pounding head. The touch of cool metal against his temple made him freeze, however, and when he pulled his hand away he could only stare in horror at the small, yellow band of metal around his finger.

Swallowing hard to fight back nausea, Nick tried in vain to remember what the hell he’d been doing the night before. But before he had a chance to really start freaking out, his stomach asserted itself urgently.

As Nick struggled his way free of the sheets and lurched for the bathroom, he continued trying and failing to work out how he’d ended up in what appeared to be a hotel room - let alone married. But a great big, stubborn gap remained in his memory, and nothing helpful appeared to fill it.

*

Wearing sunglasses indoors attracted repeated and expected ribbing from the other detectives, but Nick tried valiantly to hide a wince and feign a good natured grin anyway. Though judging by Hank’s amusement, he wasn’t proving very successful at either. Sighing, Nick hit enter on a records search for the fifth time that morning and frowned when nothing new popped up. Idly, he toyed with his ring as he glared at the screen, tossing it from hand to hand before he finally dropped it back onto the desk with a huff.

“Still nothing?” Hank asked, and his smile only grew wider when Nick grumbled instead of replying. Chuckling to himself, he stood and reached for their empty coffee cups and clapped Nick on the shoulder as he went past. The thump made Nick jolt and then groan, and Hank laughed harder as he suggested, “maybe you just went for a drunken stroll through a jewellers instead of to the courthouse?”

“Then why was I in a hotel room that I apparently didn’t pay for?”

“I dunno, man. You’re the one with the wedding ring, not me. I still think you should ask the Captain. He’s been pretty decent lately, I bet he’d call in a favour to have any unfiled marriage records sent your way if you asked him to.”

Nick pulled a face at Hank’s departing back and turned back to refreshing his search. When it only returned an empty results field again, he turned reluctant eyes to the Captain’s office. There wasn’t even any indication that Sean had arrived at work that day. The door was shut and the blinds closed, and Nick hadn’t noticed anyone coming or going from the office.

Reluctantly, he dragged himself up anyway and tried to ignore the renewed pounding in his head. He swiped his mug back from a returning Hank’s hand as they passed each other on the floor, and glared him into silence when he started grinning and opened his mouth. It was probably just to make yet another joke at Nick’s expense, anyway.

He’d discovered the coffee was bitter and black at least, just like his mood, by the time he’d knocked half-heartedly. But to his surprise, Sean’s voice sang out from the other side.

“Come in,” Sean called.

Even muffled by the door he sounded weary. But Hank was right, there weren’t any remaining options for Nick other than waiting - which was driving him around the bend - or hoping someone just spontaneously showed up on his caller ID or at his house to explain themselves.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Nick said as he opened the door and peered in. He froze with his coffee halfway back to his mouth once he’d gotten a good look at Sean, though.

Sean's expression was carefully blank, but Nick thought it was with surprise rather than his usual careful control. His eyes flicked silently to Nick’s coffee cup, held aloft in Nick’s left hand. To Nick’s increasing confusing Sean blanched at the sight of it, but he reigned it in quickly and straightened before Nick could ask if he was okay.

“Ah, Nick, come in,” he said. He beckoned Nick with one hand and shuffled some papers with the other. Beside him, his phone lay off the hook, the dimmest of dial tones just barely audible to Nick’s heightened hearing.

Nick raised an eyebrow as he shut the door and took a seat, and Sean quickly hung up the phone and folded his hands together before him. They stared at each other in silence for a long moment.

“I’m afraid I’m still working to fix the paperwork,” Sean ventured as Nick struggled to find a way to say ‘I need help finding my wayward spouse’ without looking like a complete idiot.

“Paperwork?” Nick asked, latching onto the word like a lifeline. Had Hank been messing with him? Had he already roped the Captain in to fix Nick’s mess for him?

“Yes. I realise this isn’t ideal, but I’ll have everything fixed as soon as possible, Nick. You have my word.”

“Right, um. Okay,” Nick said. He opened and shut his mouth once, then grimaced. “Thank you?” he continued hesitantly, but Sean didn’t return his grateful smile. Instead, a muscle in his jaw ticked. Nick was staring at it, feeling a little hungover and slow on the uptake as he wondered what he’d missed - other than the obvious conclusion that Hank was wrong and Sean wasn’t happy to do him a favour after all - when Sean startled him by jumping to his feet and striding across the office, reaching for his jacket.

“I’m just heading out now, actually. Some of the people I need to speak to about this will respond better if asked in person,” Sean said. He hovered by the door for a moment, his hand on the doorknob, before he continued speaking in a rush. “If you need anything at all, I’ll have my cell on me.”

Then he turned the handle and was gone, leaving Nick to blink after him stupidly. He got to his feet more slowly to follow him, and caught Hank’s surprised look from the other side of the bullpen. Nick made a questioning gesture at him as he headed for him but Hank just furrowed his brow and shrugged.

“What the hell, man? The Captain just shot out of here like his shoes were on fire or something. Did you ask him?”

“Don’t you mean, did _you_ ask him?” Nick asked pointedly as he picked the wedding ring back up from his desk.

But to his surprise, Hank just looked more confused instead of smug. “I didn’t say anything to anyone, and that’s despite this being the best station gossip we’ve had in years. I should get a medal for having this much self-control.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Nick tossed the ring back and forth between his hands a few times before he pocketed it with a sigh. “I think the Captain might have had the right idea. I’m calling it, going to go grab an early lunch or something. Don’t be surprised if I don’t come back.”

Relieved to have a plan, even if it was only likely to relocate his wallowing to somewhere quieter, he groped blindly for the jacket hanging on the back of his chair. It wasn’t until he was shrugging into it that Hank responded by whistling, long and low. Startled, Nick looked up and found Hank watching him with his eyebrows raised.

“What?”

“You sure the only place you went last night was a jewellers?” Hank asked.

Nick rolled his eyes. “I don’t even know if I went there, you made that up all by yourself.”

“Right, yeah. Only, you’ve got a little something,” Hank said as he waved away Nick’s words and pointed towards his own collarbone.

Frowning, Nick looked down. His collar had gone askew from the weight of his jacket being half on, tugging it to one side and exposing a swathe of skin that would normally be covered. And Hank had been right, he did have a little something.

“What the hell?” he muttered as he reached up to rub at it.

“What I think you meant to say was: what the hell did I even get up to last night. A tattoo, man, seriously?”

“It can’t be,” Nick said as he licked a finger and rubbed harder. “It’s not smudging but it doesn’t hurt. There’s no way that’s a tattoo… is it?”

Growing increasingly panicked by the moment, Nick quickly finished pulling his jacket on and fumbled for his phone and keys.

“Whatever it is, it’s definitely not nothing. Do you think it could be-,” Hank replied, pausing to glance around the room and lower his voice. “Wesen?”

“I don’t know, but it might explain a few things.”

Hank whistled again, then held up his hands in surrender when Nick glared. “Alright, alright. No more teasing.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it. If anyone’s looking for me, I’ll be at the Spice Shop. Maybe Monroe and Rosalee can work out what the hell is going on.”

*

“What do you mean you woke up somewhere strange after drinking in a bar after work and you don’t know who took you there? Nick, man, that’s….”

“Yeah, not great,” Nick agreed with a grimace. “I already pulled the cop card, too. The hotel records and CCTV were wiped before I made it downstairs, and whoever else was there paid with cash on their way out this morning. So I’ve got nothing. Just this, and possibly this.”

He held up the ring and then unbuttoned the top of his shirt and pulled the fabric aside.

Monroe and Rosalee both gaped, then shared a loaded glance.

“What? What was that?” Nick asked.

“I’m not sure. Let me just have a closer look at that for you,” Rosalee said as she quickly rounded the counter. She reached out towards the mark on Nick’s chest, then froze with her hand only millimetres away from his skin. “Yup,” she said as she yanked her hand back. “Yup, I can’t bring myself to touch it. That’s definitely a bonding mark.”

“Oh, boy,” Monroe said.

“Yup,” Rosalee repeated, nodding as she clasped and unclasped her hands. “I have never seen anything like this happen before.”

“Never seen anything like _what_ before? What the hell is a bonding mark?” Nick asked, his voice beginning to rise.

“Well,” Monroe said with a grimace.

Rosalee gave Nick an apologetic smile, interrupting Monroe before Nick could give into the urge to shake one of them. “It’s really very unusual to have one appear this late in life. Am I right in remembering that you didn’t have any marks there before today, yes?”

“No. I mean, yes, yes you’re right. This is new.”

“Weeell,” Monroe said again, drawing the word out further.

“Seriously?” Nick cried, rounding on him.

“I mean, it’s not technically new. It can’t be,” Monroe replied, even as he backed up a step and looked sheepish.

Nick exhaled sharply and dragged a hand down his face. “I definitely didn’t have any kind of mark there before this. Not even a freckle, and I’m pretty sure I would have noticed something like this thing sooner!”

Monroe shrugged just as Rosalee thwapped him gently on the arm. “What Monroe is trying to say is that the mark must have always been there,” she said as she began to rummage through a stack of books. “I don’t think I have any bond books to hand, but I’m fairly certain that it can't just appear like this. It must have been… hidden, somehow.”

“Hidden,” Nick repeated flatly.

“This is fascinating, actually. Bond marks are uncommon, even among Wesen to Wesen matches, and I’ve never heard of a Grimm with one,” Rosalee continued, barely pausing as she leafed through her books. “It would take quite powerful magic to hide it and it would have to be administered before you came of age or ideally earlier to ensure the mark never had a chance to appear. Perhaps around puberty. Do you remember drinking anything that might have been a Zaubertränke when you were young? Given the most likely ingredients for that sort of spell, it probably would have been something far too foul to drug someone with without them noticing.”

Nick pinched the bridge of his nose for a long moment, then pinned her with a stare. “No, I don’t remember drinking any magic potions as a child.”

“Or it could have been a charmed object, maybe a piece of jewellery you were told to wear for a full turn of the moon? Your aunt is probably the most likely source of any spell placed on you.”

Silently, Nick just held out his hands in supplication.

“Right, your aunt hadn’t told you about the Grimms,” Rosalee said absently as she shut the book. “There’s nothing in here, but I’ll have a look through some of the books I have in the back. Are you sure you don’t remember anything strange from your childhood?”

“Nope,” Nick replied, popping the p with particular emphasis. “Not a clue, and you still haven’t explained what a bond mark even is or why it’s so hard to hide with magic.”

“Wellll,” Monroe started to say again, but Rosalee quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.

“It’s a mark you share with someone else, Nick. A sign that you have another half, a perfect match if you will. A… soulmate, sort of,” Rosalee said quickly, before Monroe could pry her hand free.

Nick was pretty sure his face clearly telegraphed his scepticism, but Rosalee just kept looking charmed but concerned by the whole idea. “A soulmate,” he finally said.

“That’s right. It’s very powerful, innate magic bound to the people the mark appears on, so even something strong enough to hide one wouldn't hold up in the face of an emotional consummation.”

“Consummation?” Nick asked, alarmed and starting to feel like a broken record just repeating everything Rosalee was saying.

“Not that sort of consummation,” Monroe said urgently, his words muffled from behind Rosalee’s hand.

Rosalee made a sharp negating sound and finally released Monroe. “On no, Nick, nothing like that. Monroe’s right. Emotion really is the key component. It could have been something like a declaration of love, both of you realising you have feelings for each other, or a show of commitment… that sort of thing.”

Silently, Nick raised the hand holding the wedding ring again. “Like this?” he asked quietly.

“Yes,” Rosalee said faintly, seemingly taking in the significance of a gold band for the first time. “Yes, something exactly like that, actually.”

*

Nick had to pound his fist on the door for a third time before it finally opened.

“What? I’m busy-,” Sean snapped on the other side of the opening door, phone held to his ear. He went still when he saw who it was though, and sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m going to have to call you back.”

“So that’s why I couldn’t get through to you,” Nick said as he pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped forward. Silently, Sean moved aside and let Nick brush past him and into the apartment. “We need to talk.”

Sean slowly lowered his phone from his face and shut the door behind Nick. The click of the latch sounded through the apartment, putting Nick even more on edge - something he hadn’t thought was possible once he’d run through the events of his morning one more time with Monroe and Rosalee before coming to the most obvious conclusion, then stewed in the car all the way back to the station and across the city to Sean’s apartment building when he was nowhere to be found.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” he heard Sean say cautiously as Nick finally drew to a stop beside the lounge windows. The view was breathtaking, and he took a moment to just breathe and admire it while he gathered his thoughts. “I have our annulment already drawn up and ready to go,” Sean continued behind him when Nick said nothing. “But I’m very close to getting the original papers and any record of them in my hands. Once they’re torn up it will be done with and like it never happened, which I thought you might prefer to the alternative.”

Nick breathed in deeply one more time, and then breathed out slowly. “So it _was_ you,” he said quietly.

“I’m sorry?” Sean asked. Nick listened as Sean’s footsteps drew closer, heels clicking loudly as the words hung in the air between them.

“It was you,” Nick said more clearly as he turned around.

Sean halted when their eyes met, wary confusion visible in every line of his body. “Yes. I thought you knew. At the office, I told you-”

“This morning, I woke up alone and… confused,” Nick said, interrupting. He continued quickly when Sean opened his mouth to respond, tugging aside his collar for what was beginning to feel like the thousandth time that day. “And with this.”

That stopped Sean short. His jaw dropped as he stared at the mark on Nick’s skin. Nick watched him closely for a reaction, not dropping his hand to hide the mark again as he scrutinised Sean. Sean's hand twitched by his side and he swayed forward for a moment as if wanting to move closer and check the mark for himself.

“That’s-,” he began to say, voice hoarse.

“A match for yours, I’m assuming.”

Sean visibly swallowed, then nodded and gestured vaguely towards his left thigh. “Yes.”

“And you were going to, what, rip it all up? Why? I’ve spoken with Monroe and Rosalee, I know what this mark is now. What it means to most Wesen. Does it not mean the same thing to you?” Nick asked, each question bursting out of him rapid fire.

“You didn’t -,” Sean started to say and then shook his head and rubbed at his jaw. He turned away a little, as if he couldn’t bear to look at Nick or the mark any longer; but his eyes continued to flick back every few moments as if despite himself. “We were both very drunk, and you- we- We’ve never exactly gotten along. This morning, once I realised what we’d-”

Nick watched as Sean’s hand dropped to rub at his left, lingering over his empty ring finger as he cut himself short again. Then he seemed to notice Nick watching and squared his shoulders, both hands disappearing quickly into his pockets.

“I knew the first time we met. It’s impossible not to feel it through the mark if you have one, but you never reacted. I assumed it was because you weren’t a Grimm yet,” Sean said with a grimace. “But after your powers… well. I thought you were fairly clear, as far as rejections go.”

Suddenly, Sean pivoted and stalked across the room. Still reeling a little from the confession that he thought he’d have to work harder to wring out, Nick only half-listened to the clinking of glass until Sean reappeared beside him with two tumblers in hand.

“Here, I think we could both use this,” Sean said brusquely as he took a sip of his own drink and held the other out.

“The mark, it wasn’t- I didn’t have one before today. It only just appeared,” Nick clarified haltingly as he reached for the drink, just in case there was any remaining confusion. Sean’s hand jerked just as Nick grabbed the glass though, brushing their fingers together briefly.

Nick gasped. Everything seemed to disappear as his whole world centred down to the touch between them. The sensation of skin brushing against skin shivered up his arm and across his chest, until he felt a strange tugging feeling against his collarbone right where the mark had appeared.

Then just as suddenly his senses all rushed back to him at once, leaving him dizzy.

The glass slipped through his nerveless fingers before he’d realised what was happening, and Sean tried to grab for it. But Nick was already intertwining their fingers without thinking about it, getting hopelessly in Sean’s way.

“Don’t,” he gasped, gripping Sean harder even as the glass cracked and spilled across the floor.

Sean didn’t pull away. Instead, he went still beneath Nick’s hand. Nick scrunched his eyes closed, breathing hard as he tried to sort through all the strange sensations and find his bearings. But after a moment the tugging feeling settled into his skin like a comforting weight, still there but not as strong or as distracting.

When Nick opened his eyes again, Sean was watching him closely. “You really didn’t…?”

“No. But I think I see what you mean now about it being impossible to miss,” Nick replied.

Sean continued to watch him, until the urge to fidget was overwhelming and Nick licked his lips. But he didn’t drop his grip on Sean’s hand, only tightened it when Sean's flicked down and he shifted his weight uneasily.

“You don’t seem to be all that bothered by this,” Sean said after the silence had drawn out between them again.

“I don’t know, maybe I am,” Nick said. Something dark crossed Sean’s face, and it made his stomach swoop low inside him. “Maybe it just needs to sink in. I don’t- this is, this is new. But maybe… maybe don’t rip anything up, yet. Keep the annulment papers ready, I guess. But don’t- not yet.”

Sean raised an eyebrow. “You want to stay married?” he asked, tone skeptical.

“Mostl, I just don’t seem to want you to stop holding my hand,” Nick admitted in a rush, grimacing at himself as soon as he’d said it. “Sorry, that’s. I don’t know what this is, I shouldn’t have-”

He started to try and pull away, even though the tugging sensation in his chest immediately returned with a vengeance. But Sean held tight to him. Nick raised his free hand to rub at the mark, discomfited, and couldn’t help but wonder how Sean had ignored it all this time. Or if it had even felt the same as this for him.

Sean watched Nick’s movements closely with interest, then raised their joined hands to his mouth. Nick just blinked, shocked, as he pressed a kiss to Nick’s knuckles and warmth blossomed out from the touch. It washed through Nick in a wave that erased the unpleasant tugging sensation and left him feeling limber and relaxed for the first time since he’d awoken.

“Didn’t that help?” Sean asked quietly a moment later, eyes fixed on Nick’s other hand where it was still idly rubbing at his mark.

“It did,” Nick replied, equally quiet, though he didn’t drop his hand. Instead he splayed his fingers out across the mark, hesitant to drop contact with it entirely. “What do we do now?”

“Traditionally?” Sean asked, and Nick shrugged a shoulder. “We would court each other, prove that the mark’s assessment of our compatibility is correct, and then….”

“Get married?” Nick asked wryly.

Sean’s lips twitched. “Or something like it, yes.”

“And there’s no weird magical repercussions to doing things out of order? Or stopping, later, if we…,” Nick asked, already thinking five steps ahead and hoping Rosalee had unearthed the bonding book from the stockroom by now like she’d promised.

“No, nothing magical. Nothing strange or Wesen either, not now that the mark has been acknowledged. What we do next is entirely up to us, there's no compulsion here.”

Nick mulled that over for a moment. “So, courting. Is that why you kissed my hand like I’m some kind of princess?”

Sean chuckled, his grip on Nick’s hand tightening for a moment. “A kiss somewhere else is more traditional. But I thought you might object to that.”

“We must have done it already. You may kiss the groom, or whatever,” Nick said absently, then stumbled to a stop when he realised what he’d been saying. He watched Sean’s face do something complicated he couldn't work out before it smoothed over again.

“My memory might be a little fuzzy.”

“Ah,” Nick said knowingly. “Mine, too.”

“Of course, it is traditional,” Sean continued slowly. The mark gave a thrum over Nick’s collarbone at the words, or perhaps at the intensity of Sean’s gaze, so Nick didn’t protest when Sean leaned in a little. Not far enough to be obvious, or to prevent Nick from easily side-stepping him without acknowledging it if he wanted to. But to his own surprise, he didn't want to.

“Because I'm such a traditional kind of guy,” Nick replied, but he leant in a little, too.

Sean snorted, and the warm gust of his breath hit Nick’s skin and made him shiver. But Sean seemed to take his lean in for the permission that Nick had meant it to be, and he closed the gap between them quickly to press a long but chaste kiss on Nick’s lips.

Nick didn’t notice until Sean pulled away that his eyes had closed again. He took in a long, slow breath and sent a stern thought to his mark to simmer the hell down, which it didn’t, before he opened them again.

“Alright,” he said quietly as he let himself move further into Sean’s space, ignoring the crunch of glass under his shoes when he stepped forward. It didn’t feel as odd as he would have expected to be so close, and a strange sort of rightness settled in him as he squeezed Sean’s hand and was heartened when the gesture was returned. “So we just see where this takes us, then?”

Sean licked his lips and nodded, ducking his head. “Looking forward to it,” he murmured, just before their lips met again.


End file.
